Introduction

The U.S. population increased by more than 2.2 million people between 2016 and 2017, with Hispanics accounting for 1.1 million, or about half (51%), of this growth, according to the Pew Research Center. The significant growth of the Hispanic population in the United States has broad implications for marketing, marketing research, and consumption patterns generally. The nature of these implications, however, remains largely under-studied.1

Definitions

Hispanic: Marketing research professionals struggle to define "hispanicness" in terms that help measure the impact of demographic shifts. This paper looks at the inherent challenges and how market research professionals can avoid common mistakes in determining what being Hispanic means in a research context.